


Pluto

by racountuer



Series: Our Solar System [6]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Friends to Lovers, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, M/M, Mutual Pining, Stargazing, You think I am kidding but I am not, also this is a gazillion years late oh well, for klance week everyone!
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-04
Updated: 2016-10-04
Packaged: 2018-08-19 11:15:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,587
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8203936
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/racountuer/pseuds/racountuer
Summary: The first time Keith sees Lance as an actual good human being, and not just an annoying voice constantly echoing in his head, is surprisingly not when he saves Coran from the explosion on the castle. No matter how heroic and big that one moment was, it wasn’t the first thing that alerted Keith’s heart that it may be in more trouble than it had previously calculated. Or, Keith is realising that Lance is not just jokes on the inside. Everyone has hidden depths, even the most shallow of people.





	

Though Keith oftentimes feels like he is one breath away from murdering Lance, he also knows that Lance is one of the most morally sound human beings he’s ever met. 

The first time Keith sees Lance as an actual good human being, and not just an annoying voice constantly echoing in his head, is surprisingly not when he saves Coran from the explosion on the castle. No matter how heroic and big that one moment was, it wasn’t the first thing that alerted Keith’s heart that it may be in more trouble than it had previously calculated. 

No, the first time Keith sees Lance for who he is under all the jokes and the fake confidence is when he’s helping Hunk and Pidge create a device (to this day he has no idea what it is, it’s disappeared). The three of them had been working on it for the whole day, and each time Keith walked past them he saw them still sitting in a huddle, passing tools and prattling off ideas every few minutes. 

Keith had been going back and forth between the training deck and the kitchens for a good number of hours, grabbing water and goo-to-go before he went back to training with the gladiators. 

He had just finished a run to the kitchen and was making his way through the main hall where Lance, Hunk, and Pidge had been making the device for the past hour, and as he walks in, he halts on the door. Keith steps back a few feet into the shadows, watching as Lance picks up all the stray material and puts it away. Hunk and Pidge are both asleep on the floor next to each other, Hunk snoring quietly. 

Lance finishes packing their things and sighs. He runs a hand through his hair before shaking his head, a fond smile sneaking into his face. Crouching down, he drapes a blanket over Hunk before picking Pidge up and carrying them down the halls to where their bedrooms are. 

Keith blinks and retreats back to the training deck without waiting to see if Lance needs further help.

 

* * *

 

 

“I just never thought he’d be the kind to do that,” Keith says, swinging his feet from where he sits on the desk in Shiro’s bedroom. Shiro and he have been talking for the better part of thirty minutes, as they often do on a weekly basis, and so Shiro’s already comfortably lying on his bed as Keith talks on. 

“Why didn’t you think so?” 

“I don’t know. I guess it’s a bit weird to imagine someone who hates you caring so much about others.” 

“Lance doesn’t hate you,” Shiro smiles pitifully. He’s silent for a moment before saying, “You know, most people have a mask that they pull out on public occasions, especially with people they don’t know well. We all have them, and when we take them off with people we’re comfortable with, our personalities are a little different.” 

“So you’re saying that Lance is a different person when I’m not around because…he doesn’t like me. Or he’s not comfortable around me.” 

Shiro gives Keith a look, and he wishes he could interpret it because it’s not often Shiro feels so strongly about someone’s stupidity that the emotions lay on his face. “I’m just saying that Lance, like everyone on this ship, has a public mask. And I think that when he takes it off, he’s more different from it than most people are.” 

That night, Keith can’t sleep with the thoughts that plague him. 

 

* * *

The second time Keith is able to see Lance behind his mask is after he comes out of the healing pod. It’s been a few days since the explosion on the castle knocked him unconscious, and since then, Keith has been a wrecked mess of jittering nerves. He hadn’t known how much he relied on the daily banter with Lance, but now that he wasn’t here to argue with, Keith spent most of his days in silence. 

Keith felt a little out of touch with reality, which is why he’s the first to press his face against the glass of the healing pod the day that Lance is supposed to come out. 

He ignores Shiro’s knowing look and opts instead to ask how much more time Lance is going to be stuck in there. 

Allura answers rationally and quickly. 

Somehow, that pisses Keith off. 

He wants Lance to come out  _ now  _ and not in a few hours or a day more, no, he needs Lance to make stupid jokes because without them the silence in the castle seems to echo down the halls and fill each crevice. Keith doesn’t have anything against quiet moments, actually welcomes them, but with Lance, he can get quiet moments. Rarely, but they’re there. With Lance still unconscious, the quiet becomes silence, and that is enough to rattle anyone. 

When Lance sneaks up on them as they’re measuring ticks, everyone is so caught up on focusing on Lance’s well-being that they don’t realise a weight has been lifted off their shoulders. Especially when Lance delivers a bad joke. 

And Keith, well, Keith smiles. For the first time since the whole ordeal with the bomb, Keith smiles and a chuckle tickles its way past his throat. Lance looks at Keith for a moment, and as he looks away, a quiet smile makes its way onto his face. 

It seems that Keith wasn’t the only one to miss someone.

 

* * *

The third time Keith sees Lance for the boy underneath, he realises that this will certainly not be the last time. 

He’s walking toward the observatory deck in the castle, hair sticking to the back of his neck after a rigorous training with the Gladiator. Everyone went to sleep hours ago, and so it’s not much of a stretch to assume Lance must have disappeared to bed as well. Instead of bed, Keith finds that Lance is lying on the floor of the observatory with bedsheets wrapped around his shoulders. His back is resting against the farthest wall from the door, and his head is tilted up to the stars. 

The stars reflect from the open skylight onto Lance’s face, and Keith feels like someone’s just punched his gut straight up to his throat. 

“Space for one more?” 

Lance’s head snaps to Keith, who’s still standing stock-still at the entrance. Keith doesn’t know how he manages to say anything, his vocal chords are still clogged by his stomach. And his stomach is full of butterflies. And his palms are sweaty. 

“Uh, yeah,” Lance hesitates before smiling and patting the open spot beside him, “In case you didn’t notice, there’s space for five dozen of us. I know the concept of mathematics is a challenge, but I thought even you could figure this out.” 

Keith rolls his eyes, sliding down to lay on the cold spot of floor. Before he can rest his head on the metal, Lance opens up his arms to spread half of his bedsheets on the floor for Keith to lie on. Lance untangles himself from his blanket, and covers both of them up with it. It’s all done unceremoniously, with Lance throwing everything on Keith, but Keith still feels an irregular patter on his chest. 

“So, what’re you doing here?” 

Lance glances at Keith before returning his gaze to the cosmos, “I do this when I can’t sleep, when I miss home.” 

“Why?” 

“It’s nice to think that I’m looking at the direction of Earth,” Lance sighs, “I don’t know. I guess it makes me feel less alone.” 

Keith looks up at the stars, every twinkle in the universe illuminating the observatory with varying shades of light. There are ten times more stars in the night sky here than there could ever be on Earth, and for a second, he can’t imagine why Lance would ever miss his home planet. 

Then he remembers.  _ Home planet.  _ That’s his home. 

It’s Keith’s home, as well, even if sometimes he doesn’t think so. 

Suddenly, Keith and Lance don’t seem like two separate entities from opposite spectrums of life; red and blue, heat and cold, aggressing and calming. It feels more like Keith-and-Lance, two humans sharing a mission and sharing the stars and sharing blankets. 

Keith inhales deeply, “You’re not alone.” 

“I know, I know. I have Hunk and Pidge, but…” 

“I don’t mean Hunk and Pidge,” Keith says, lifting himself up on his elbows. He’s almost on top of Lance, the sheets falling off his shoulders. “I mean me. You also have me.” 

Instead of turning to a blushing mess, like Keith had always imagined he would, Lance smirks, “Oh?” 

Keith blushes. 

Lance’s eyebrows go up before a slow smile slides into his face, crinkling his eyes and softening the curve of his lips. Suddenly, Lance surges up with a hand behind Keith’s head, and pulls him down so their lips meet. Keith takes a moment to breathe in a stutter before he kisses Lance back, relishing in the feeling of Lance’s hand pulling at the longer strands of hair behind his neck and the little keening noise he makes when Keith slides a hand over Lance’s clothed ribs. 

They part, and Lance is finally blushing. Keith raises an eyebrow at him, playfully tapping Lance’s heated cheeks. 

“Shut up,” Lance murmurs, wriggling under the covers. 

“I like that colour on you,” Keith whispers, crawling back to where Lance is, chasing after what hidden inside the blankets, inside his mind. “It fits you.” 


End file.
